On the Bookshelf: Chris Buck's Presence: The Invisible Portrait

If a tree falls in the woods and no one is around to hear it, does it still make a sound? If a photographer shoots a portrait without a visible subject is it still a portrait? Chris Buck asks the latter question in his new book, Presence, The Invisible Portrait. Buck makes his living shooting the famous—actors, musicians, athletes, artists, politicians—for magazines around the world, including some very memorable portraits for GQ (there two photos in this slideshow—one of Andy Samberg, one of Aziz Ansari—that were taken while Buck was on assignment for GQ). During his shoots for those magazines, Buck got into the habit of asking his subjects to hide somewhere at the locations where they were shooting. The hiding places vary from the obvious (Weird Al Yankovic behind a curtain) to the whimsical (is David Byrne behind a box that reads "The Big Suit"?) to the hilarious (Snoop Dogg in a literal dog house that's guarded by a tiny white dog; William Shatner somewhere within the corny confines of giant bales of hay), but in every case there is the unsettling sensation of, "I can see you but you can't see me". Rather than yet another book of famous faces, Buck has created something altogether more fascinating: Once you've gone beyond the game of searching for the subject you find yourself trying to figure out the hidden truths suggested by the locations. In some cases, maybe the place means nothing at all, and that's fine too. Turns out the promise of a celebrity can sometimes be as satisfying as the reality.

Presence, The Invisible Portrait is due out in September from publisher Kehrer.

If a tree falls in the woods and no one is around to hear it, does it still make a sound? If a photographer shoots a portrait without a visible subject is it still a portrait? Chris Buck asks the latter question in his new book, Presence, The Invisible Portrait. Buck makes his living shooting the famous—actors, musicians, athletes, artists, politicians—for magazines around the world, including some very memorable portraits for GQ (there two photos in this slideshow—one of Andy Samberg, one of Aziz Ansari—that were taken while Buck was on assignment for GQ). During his shoots for those magazines, Buck got into the habit of asking his subjects to hide somewhere at the locations where they were shooting. The hiding places vary from the obvious (Weird Al Yankovic behind a curtain) to the whimsical (is David Byrne behind a box that reads "The Big Suit"?) to the hilarious (Snoop Dogg in a literal dog house that's guarded by a tiny white dog; William Shatner somewhere within the corny confines of giant bales of hay), but in every case there is the unsettling sensation of, "I can see you but you can't see me". Rather than yet another book of famous faces, Buck has created something altogether more fascinating: Once you've gone beyond the game of searching for the subject you find yourself trying to figure out the hidden truths suggested by the locations. In some cases, maybe the place means nothing at all, and that's fine too. Turns out the promise of a celebrity can sometimes be as satisfying as the reality.

Presence, The Invisible Portrait is due out in September from publisher Kehrer.